The 5 Hottest Series B Startups from 2014

August 19, 2015

11:00 am

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Mattermarkranked the five fastest-growing Series B startups from last year, and most of them are living up to the hype in 2015.

Series B is typically the third round of funding that a startup raises, after seed and Series A. The size of a Series B round varies, but the startups below were funded to the tune of $5-66 million. Fast growth is determined by the Mattermark growth score, which takes into account monthly unique website visitors, weekly mobile downloads, social media metrics, number of employees, and equity funding.

Zenefits (ranked #1), for example, is focused on growing their sales and marketing teams. “Zenefits is high tech and high touch — so as we continue expanding, we need to grow our customer service team with experienced brokers and world-class support staff,” the company said.

Bustle (ranked #2) similarly used their $5 million Series B round to expand their sales and engineering teams. “The Series B stage for Bustle, as it is with the majority of startups, was all about accelerating growth,” says Lindsey Green, a representative from Bustle.

Instacart, which raised a $44 million Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz in June 2014, closed a $220 million Series C round on December 30. And in early August of this year, they acquired the Palo Alto startup Wedding Party.

Growth score: 1857

Mattermark says: “Instacart, a same-day grocery delivery service, has surpassed 30% month-over-month revenue growth. It continues to announce new partnerships with local and national stores.”

Squarespace raised a $40 million Series B round in April 2014, but hasn’t raised any money since.

Growth score: 1794

Mattermark says: “Squarespace, which helps small businesses build designer websites without extensive technical know-how or budgets, has been profitable since 2012.”

The fastest-growing Series B startups of 2014, along with a wealth of other data on the fastest-growing startups, regions, and industries, are reported in the 2014 Startup Traction Report($99).

Mattermark’s 2014 Startup Traction Report uses data from public sources like Crunchbase, AngelList, NASDAQ, the SEC, and the White House Office of Management & Budget, as well as private relationships they have with investors and entrepreneurs. Everything was measured for the 2014 fiscal year, which covers October 2013-September 2014.

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Kira M. Newman is a Tech Cocktail writer interested in the harsh reality of entrepreneurship, work-life balance, and psychology. She is the founder of The Year of Happy and has been traveling around the world interviewing entrepreneurs in Asia, Europe, and North America since 2011. Follow her @kiramnewman or contact kira@tech.co.